Might not be a popular opinion these days but I am really glad there exists a distro like Ubuntu that provides a curated experience that just works out of the box.

• Hardware manufacturers and software developers formally test and certify it. For example, the new Framework 13 pro can be shipped with Ubuntu preinstalled as well as Lenovo Thinkpads, Dell, etc which all ship or formally support Ubuntu. Steam still only officially supports Ubuntu outside of Steam OS IIRC.

• The Ubuntu kernel will often have vendor patches and back ports before they are up streamed. OS components might also see improvements earlier (e.g. gnome triple buffering backport before it was even available in gnome stable).

• It is the defacto for AI, data science and other non-swe communities and increasingly popular server and cloud option.

• Snap gets a lot of hate but it has technical capabilities that flatpak doesn’t (CLI programs, even being able to handle kernels, etc). The prepackaged rocm and cuda snaps and models is a great example of something other distros can’t easily do.

• They give free enterprise level features like live patching and security centre for individuals.

• The UX is comfortable for both windows and Mac users with their prepackaged and maintained gnome extensions that make gnome usable and familiar.

• It provides a flexible upgrade pattern with LTS with or without HWE and 6 month cadence.

For people that just want to get to work Ubuntu still is one of the best options. Looking forward to this release!

Reinstalled my work laptop earlier today.

1. IPU7 camera still doesn’t work out of the box. Hoping there’s an OEM driver released at some point.
2. Switching away from snap-based Firefox means a firefox that won’t start up. I’m now stuck with Firefox in a Snap, which can’t manage gnome extensions. Annoying paper cut requiring installing (ironically) a flatpak to manage extensions.
3. They removed the “Software and Updates” package from the default install, making for a worse experience for new users trying to fix driver issues
4. The dash-to-dock plugin that Cannonical default installs overrides some keyboard shortcuts (particularly super+q - my preferred shortcut for closing programs)
5. ptyxis is fine as a terminal, but all configs only go through dconf, so any changes you want require a pile of searching
6. sudo -E doesn’t actually bring in environment vars, breaking at least some scripts.

Some of these come from Cannonical switching away from GNU userland tools. Some of these may be more Gnome choices. And some just suck.

If I wasn’t stuck with Ubuntu because of software requirements, I would use nearly anything else.

Time to wait another year and a half before this is finally supported out of the box by every framework